CITY will not play the blame game as they look to discover their goal touch against Southend tonight.

The Bantams failed to register a single shot on target in Saturday's loss at Oxford – their first of the season.

Billy Clarke missed a penalty and Jordy Hiwula blew two gilt-edged openings as the 12-game unbeaten run ended.

Second-placed City have not put anyone to the sword yet despite their impressive start but Stuart McCall is not holding anyone responsible.

The Bradford boss said: "There's no finger-pointing. We win and lose as a team.

"I'm not hung up on it. Of course we would like to take more of the chances we are creating and we are trying to do that. But there's not a blame culture.

"It's not easy just to go away from home and expect to win games. We went to Chesterfield and won by a single goal but could have got more. We won at MK Dons and Jordy got the goal at Peterborough.

"On another day, Jordy could have had a couple on Saturday. But we don't point the blame at anyone."

City will make a late call on the lower leg injury that forced off James Meredith early in the second half. The left back was feeling better over the weekend but Matt Kilgallon stands by to replace him.

James Hanson is among the changes McCall is considering against Phil Brown's side. Haris Vuckic could also come into the reckoning after being left on the bench at the weekend.

But McCall sees the on-loan Slovenian as a wing option rather than up front and said: "Haris isn't a centre forward. He came in when Ando (Paul Anderson) went out to supply extra width.

"Haris can play as a number ten but mainly coming in off the left or off the right. That's where I played him for Rangers. At the moment we've options out wide.

"On Saturday we put Fil Morais up against a left back who doesn't normally play there after Marshy (Mark Marshall) felt his hamstring was a bit tight.

"Marc McNulty coming on for Hiwula was like-for-like and we'd already made the change with Mez being injured."

Southend do not travel well and have lost nine of their last 11 away trips since March, although they head for Valley Parade lifted by Saturday's win over Chesterfield.

McCall said: "They got a clean sheet as well and battled for it. Southend are a big, physical side and they are dangerous at set-pieces, where they scored from.

"We've had some really tight home games this season against sides in the lower end of the table, where Southend happen to be at this moment in time. We don't expect anything different tonight.

"Saturday showed how football can change on fine lines. We didn't make their goalie work like we should have done. We defended solidly and moved the ball well enough.

"There's a lot of things that could have gone differently – a missed penalty, missed chances, giving away a silly free-kick and a soft goal.

"If one of those things had gone right for us, we would have come back with something, but that shows how tight this league can be."